Tag: TaughtByKendrick

Last weekend I had the amazing opportunity to spend time backstage at Wild ‘n Out in Brooklyn, New York to see how things work behind the scenes. During my time on set, I sat in on filmings of the show and hung out with cast members, which was somewhat surreal being that I’ve been watching Wild ‘n Out since I was too young to be watching it.

However, what was most exciting is that I got a chance to interview the show’s costume designer, Satthra San. San is the woman behind the eclectic, yet cohesive red and black (and recently gold and platinum) fashions that have become such a huge part of the show. Here’s a closer look at just what that job entails:

Chantè: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me, I just have a few questions. Firstly,how did you get to this position in your career?

Satthra: No problem! Doyou want the long story or the short story?

C: Either one is fine.

S: Basically, I moved to New York six and a half years ago and started doing sales in fashion. I have a Bachelor’s in design, and I’ve been sewing since I was like thirteen so I actually had a lot of opportunities back home, but I really wanted to be in New York, so I literally left everything. I left a comfortable life and started from scratch here. I didn’t know anyone, I met my roommate online and I found my apartment the weekend I graduated. When I got here I started doing sales in a showroom as an intern and I was there for a year. I met a bunch of stylists. One, in particular, I kept in contact with and a year later I hit her up and she had to fire her assistant that same weekend and she lived down the street from me. I was everything that she needed at that time and she was everything that I needed at that time, so it just kind of fell into place. She did a lot of styling for Atlantic artists such as Wale, B.O.B. and Joe Budden, so that’s how I got my start in the styling world. Her best friend was actually working Wild ‘N Out at the time, this was season six. At the same time, my former boss was moving to London, so I worked my ass off on season 6 and my her best friend adopted me for the next four seasons. Then I graduated to be lead for the past two seasons, seasons ten and eleven. And now, here I am.

C: And now here we are! That’s great. So now that you’ve been in this position for a couple of seasons, what’s your favorite part of the job?

S: Well since I have a design background, all of these jerseys are kind of sort of my visions. Our people, New Jersey Sets, who are based out in California, I give them my inspiration and the things I’m looking for for the season and they come back to me with designs and I’ll say “add a hood” or “add this color panel.” We’ve actually been a couple seasons going trying to achieve these sequin jerseys, so getting to make stuff like that happen is probably my favorite part.

C: That actually flows right into my next question, which is how do the fashions on the show come about? I know the cast all have their different styles, so do they come to you and say “this is what I want” or do you just tell them that’s what they’re going to wear?

S: It’s definitely a collaboration. There are some guys that sort of know exactly what they want and they’ve been on the show for so many years that they just trust us at this point. They just come and kind of look through the jersey racks and anything on these racks they kind of customize however they want. But then there are other cast members, the new ones, that are super excited and just want to put everything together.

C: So how is the work environment? Is it chaotic? It is chill?

S: You know what’s crazy? It all starts at the top. For me, I wanted to build an organized foundation. I wanted it to be so that everyone coming in to work for me knows the lay of the land and is multi-talented. You can’t just be able to do one thing here. You’ve got to do multiple things. For me, I’m on the [sewing] machine, I handle the vinyl cutter, I’ll heat press the names, I’ll make designs on the computer along with putting the clothes onto people.

C: So that again kind of goes into my next question: How much of your personal style goes into the clothes that we see on the show?

S: All of it. But actually, a lot of the things I wouldn’t pick out personally, but I would pick out for a certain person. Like Karlous likes crazy pants so we’ve gotten a lot of the G-Star and Pharell collaboration jeans for him. So like, for the OG cast members I have pieces I specifically hand pick for them, and there are other fillers that I kind of just get just in case someone might want to try it, but most importantly it all just needs to look good on stage and on camera.

C: Okay, final question: Do you also design Nick’s turbans?

S: Unfortunately I do not. Nick has his own team that I’d be happy to connect you with if need be.